Part 4 (1/2)

[Footnote A: It is lamentable to think that the same Mr. Dunning, in a cause of this kind, which came on afterwards, took the opposite side of the question.]

After this one or two other trials came on, in which the oppressor was defeated, and several cases occurred in which poor slaves were liberated from the holds of vessels and other places of confinement, by the exertions of Mr. Sharp. One of these cases was singular. The vessels on board which a poor African had been dragged and confined, had reached the Downs, and had actually got under weigh for the West Indies: in two or three hours she would have been out of sight; but just at this critical moment the writ of _habeas corpus_ was carried on board. The officer who served it on the captain saw the miserable African chained to the mainmast, bathed in tears, and casting a last mournful look on the land of freedom, which was fast receding from his sight. The captain, on receiving the writ, became outrageous; but knowing the serious consequences of resisting the law of the land, he gave up his prisoner, whom the officer carried safe, but now crying for joy, to the sh.o.r.e.

But though the injured Africans, whose causes had been tried, escaped slavery, and though many who had been forcibly carried into dungeons, ready to be transported into the Colonies, had been delivered out of them, Mr. Sharp was not easy in his mind: not one of the cases had yet been pleaded on the broad ground, ”Whether an African slave, coming into England, became free?” This great question had been hitherto studiously avoided; it was still, therefore, left in doubt. Mr. Sharp was almost daily acting as if it had been determined, and as if he had been following the known law of the land: he wished, therefore, that the next cause might be argued upon this principle. Lord Mansfield too, who had been bia.s.sed by the opinion of York and Talbot, began to waver in consequence of the different pleadings he had heard on this subject: he saw also no end of trials like these, till the law should be ascertained, and he was anxious for a decision on the same basis as Mr.

Sharp. In this situation the following case offered, which was agreed upon for the determination of this important question.

James Somerset, an African slave, had been brought to England by his master, Charles Stewart, in November 1769. Somerset in process of time left him. Stewart took an opportunity of seizing him, and had him conveyed on board the Ann and Mary, Captain Knowles, to be carried out of the kingdom and sold as a slave in Jamaica: the question was, ”Whether a slave, by coming into England, became free?”

In order that time might be given for ascertaining the law fully on this head, the case was argued at three different sittings. First, in January, 1772; secondly, in February, 1772; and thirdly, in May, 1772.

And that no decision otherwise than what the law warranted might be given, the opinion of the judges was taken upon the pleadings. The great and glorious result of the trial was, ”That as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English territory, he became free.”

Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, having, been determined after so deliberate an investigation of the law, can never be reversed while the British Const.i.tution remains. The eloquence displayed in it by those who were engaged on the side of liberty, was perhaps never exceeded on any occasion; and the names of the counsellors Davy, Glynn, Hargrave, Mansfield, and Alleyne, ought always to be remembered with grat.i.tude by the friends of this great cause. For when we consider in how many crowded courts they pleaded, and the number of individuals in these, whose minds they enlightened, and whose hearts they interested in the subject, they are certainly to be put down as no small instruments in the promotion of it; but chiefly to him, under Divine Providence, are we to give the praise, who became the first great actor in it, who devoted his time, his talents, and his substance to this Christian undertaking, and by whose laborious researches the very pleaders themselves were instructed and benefited. By means of his almost incessant vigilance and attention, and unwearied efforts, the poor African ceased to be hunted in our streets as a beast of prey. Miserable as the roof might be, under which he slept, he slept in security. He walked by the side of the stately s.h.i.+p, and he feared no dungeon in her hold. Nor ought we, as Englishmen, to be less grateful to this distinguished individual than the African ought to be upon this occasion. To him we owe it, that we no longer see our public papers polluted by hateful advertis.e.m.e.nts of the sale of the human species, or that we are no longer distressed by the perusal of impious rewards for bringing back the poor and the helpless into slavery, or that we are prohibited the disgusting spectacle of seeing man bought by his fellow-man. To him, in short, we owe this restoration of the beauty of our const.i.tution--this prevention of the continuance of our national disgrace.

I shall say but little more of Mr. Sharp at present, than that he felt it his duty, immediately after the trial, to write to Lord North, then princ.i.p.al minister of state, warning him in the most earnest manner, to abolish immediately both the trade and the slavery of the human species in all the British dominions, as utterly irreconcileable with the principles of the British const.i.tution, and the established religion of the land.

Among other coadjutors, whom the cruel and wicked practices which have now been so amply detailed brought forward, was a worthy clergyman, whose name I have not yet been able to learn. He endeavoured to interest the public feeling in behalf of the injured Africans, by writing an epilogue to the _Padlock_, in which Mungo appeared as a black servant.

This epilogue is so appropriate to the case, that I cannot but give it to the reader. Mungo enters, and thus addresses the audience:--

Thank you, my ma.s.sas! have you laugh your fill?

Then let me speak, nor take that freedom ill.

E'en from _my_ tongue some heart-felt truths may fall, And outraged Nature claims the care of all.

My tale in _any_ place would force a tear, But calls for stronger, deeper feelings here; For whilst I tread the free-born British land, Whilst now before me crowded Britons stand,-- Vain, vain that glorious privilege to me, I am a slave, where all things else are free.

Yet was I born, as you are, no man's slave, An heir to all that liberal Nature gave; My mind can reason, and my limbs can move The same as yours; like yours my heart can love; Alike my body food and sleep sustain; And e'en like yours--feels pleasure, want, and pain.

One sun rolls o'er us, common skies surround; One globe supports us, and one grave must bound.

Why then am I devoid of all to live That manly comforts to a man can give?

To live--untaught religion's soothing balm, Or life's choice arts; to live--unknown the calm, Of soft domestic ease; those sweets of life, The duteous offspring, and th' endearing wife?

To live--to property and rights unknown, Not e'en the common benefits my own!

No arm to guard me from Oppression's rod, My will subservient to a tyrant's nod!

No gentle hand, when life is in decay, To soothe my pains, and charm my cares away; But helpless left to quit the horrid stage, Hara.s.sed in youth, and desolate in age!

But I was born in Afric's tawny strand, And you in fair Britannia's fairer land; Comes freedom, then, from colour?--Blush with shame!

And let strong Nature's crimson mark your blame.

I speak to Britons.--Britons--then behold A man by, Britons _snared_, and _seized_, and _sold!_ And yet no British statute d.a.m.ns the deed, Nor do the more than murderous villains bleed.

O sons of Freedom! equalize your laws, Be all consistent, plead the negro's cause; That all the nations in your code may see The British negro, like the Briton, free.

But, should he supplicate your laws in vain, To break, for ever, this disgraceful chain, At least, let gentle usage so abate The galling terrors of its pa.s.sing state, That he may share kind Heaven's all social plan; For, though no Briton, Mungo is--a man.

I may now add, that few theatrical pieces had a greater run than the _Padlock_; and that this epilogue, which was attached to it soon after it came out, procured a good deal of feeling for the unfortunate sufferers, whose cause it was intended to serve.

Another coadjutor, to whom these cruel and wicked practices gave birth, was Thomas Day, the celebrated author of _Sandford and Merton_, and whose virtues were well known among those who had the happiness of his friends.h.i.+p. In the year 1773 he published a poem, which he wrote expressly in behalf of the oppressed Africans. He gave it the name of _The Dying Negro._ The preface to it was written in an able manner by his friend Counsellor Bicknell, who is therefore to be ranked among the coadjutors in this great cause. The poem was founded on a simple fact, which had taken place a year or two before. A poor negro had been seized in London, and forcibly put on board a s.h.i.+p, where he destroyed himself, rather than return to the land of slavery. To the poem is affixed a frontispiece, in which the negro is represented. He is made to stand in an att.i.tude of the most earnest address to heaven, in the course of which, with the fatal dagger in his hand, he breaks forth in the following words:

To you this unpolluted blood I pour, To you that spirit, which ye gave, restore.